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DEBATE AT HARTWICK CONFAB

Can State Grow Enough Malt

To Meet Breweries' Demand?

Ommegang Brewmeister Phil Leinhart, Cooperstown, discusses the role of malted barley in beer production during The New Beer Basket, the panel discussion that this afternoon ended Winter Farmer Brewer Weekend Conference, hosted by Hartwick College. Others, from left, are Sam Filler of Empire State Development Corp., Thor Oechsner, a barley farmer from the Ithaca area, and Brent Manning of Riverbend Malt House, Asheville, N.C. (Jim Kevlin/AllOTSEGO.com) 
Ommegang Brewmeister Phil Leinhart, Cooperstown, discusses the role of malted barley in beer production during The New Beer Basket, the panel discussion that this afternoon ended the Winter Farmer Brewer Weekend Conference, hosted by Hartwick College. Others, from left, are Sam Filler of Empire State Development Corp., Thor Oechsner, a barley farmer from the Ithaca area, and Brent Manning of Riverbend Malt House, Asheville, N.C. (Jim Kevlin/AllOTSEGO.com)
John Smithson, CEO of an Oklahoma-based seed wholesaler, attended the Hartwick conference to assess the demand for barley his company can provide to brewers. With him is J.D. Drennen, his company's senior agronomist.
John Smithson, CEO of an Oklahoma-based seed wholesaler, attended the Hartwick conference to assess the demand for barley his company can provide to brewers. With him is J.D. Drennen, his company's senior agronomist.  While breweries with state Farm Brewery licenses will have to get most of their supply in-state, larger entities – like Ommegang – can shop elsewhere.

ONEONTA – What comes first, the chicken or the egg?

At the end of the fourth annual Winter Farm Brewery Weekend Conference this afternoon at Hartwick College, that was the question.The state requires brewers licensed under the state Farm Brewery Act of 2012 to use 20 percent in-state ingredients in their beers, with that rising to 60 percent in 2018 and 90 percent in 2024.

At the center of today's panel discussion wrapping up the two-day conference were the state's malt houses – there are only eight.   This year, some participants said, there was more barley grown than the malt houses needed to supply the state's microbreweries.  Farmer were left with unsold crop.

In two years, though, the demand will triple.  What then?

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